Obviously, if my son qualified for State, he had some sort of aptitude (he finished 7th in both of his events). But over the course of the track season, he changed quite a bit. After spending a week ineligible for forgetting to do an assignment, he's been more diligent in his homework. Because he has been encouraged and shown some ability, he's gained in self-confidence, and that has changed how he acts in school and who he associates with (though it has done nothing at home in terms of cleaning up after himself or putting 99.99% empty milk gallons back in the fridge instead of just finishing the 0.5oz remaining). This is the power of sports.
Just as exciting, his coach has said she'd be happy to help over the summer--excited to find a young person who loves track. It's infectious--because now he's talking about cross-country, too. Better still, Coach has hinted that if he keeps his grades up and does well in school--he can run competitively for four more years in college. So sneaky!!--she's using something like bait and switch to get him to want to do well in school so he can keep doing the sport he likes. Eventually he'll understand school is more important, but he's a 7th grader and he loves sports.
Also cool--one of the junior high basketball coaches asked why he didn't go out for basketball this year (more on that in a moment...) and said he really should next year, that the team could use someone capable of running for long periods of time who is quick--Mike plays travel soccer as well (more on that later, too...). Mike loves basketball so having a coach say that is great--and the track coach's comment-->"That's great!" not "You need to focus on cross-country or hurdles" or whatever.
The change in my son over the past twelve weeks is phenomenal and as a parent, I owe his growth to coaches doing things the right way--'grow the game' isn't just about volleyball, not at its heart. It's about the value of sports in life, especially for young people.
And all this could've wound up very badly if the adults involved messed up.
My son didn't go out for basketball for a couple reasons, both generally can be blamed on peer-pressure. The first is that he likes soccer, but his school doesn't offer it. For the past three years, he's been teased by boys about playing a 'girls sport' or 'that's not really a sport', the usual stuff 13 year olds spew when they don't understand something or are insecure because someone is 'different'. Since it wasn't a 'real' sport, it meant my son wasn't a 'real athlete', so he chose not to play team sports at his school--because those would be with his antagonists.
The other is more to the point. Back in 4th grade--as nine and ten year olds--a couple dads got together and decided they'd improve the school's basketball program by creating an 'elite' basketball team of kids who would train hard, play together, and then kick butt six or seven years down the road in high school before moving on to saving the University of Illinois' basketball program and then NBA careers. (Okay, that's snarky, but...) My son was NINE and not into most sports at that point. Since he played soccer anyways, he wasn't a real athlete. Because he didn't play on the team, it was insinuated that he'd never make the team in 7th grade because he wasn't good enough.
You know how kids are--other kids all told him that, so he bought in to it, and didn't go out for basketball. Yup--you've got to play 'elite' or 'select' ball to succeed in sports. Or maybe not--that's how you wind up with this on ESPN: Elite Travel Team Article
DISCLAIMER: I run a travel-ball volleyball program.
How many travel teams (regardless of sport) are run for the purpose of making money? How many are run to stroke the egos of parents? How many are actually run with the ideals of amateur athletics in mind? There was a discussion in a VB forum I frequent about some of this, based around an article called "Why Kids Quit Sports" (it could just as easily be 'Why kids don't start playing a sport').
Look at what kids don't care about--special training, winning, traveling to extra tournaments. Is it any wonder my son didn't go out for that 'elite' team?
But can you be successful running a club based on amateur ideals, on the concepts of helping kids through adolescence into adulthood? Absolutely.
Look at what kids want. A chance to play, a chance to be respected, encouragement to do their best (whatever level that may be), being teammates, an ability to learn--meaning they can make mistakes and not be belittled for that (go to any club vb, soccer, softball/baseball, or AAU basketball tournament...watch for this stuff...you'll be shocked)
My son's success this year is because his coach applied those principles. He was given a chance to participate--she had him do eight or nine different events, ranging from being the closing leg of a 4x400 to the high jump. He was treated equally for behavior, and rewarded with more events when he did well, given coaching when necessary. He made new friends. Is it any wonder he loves it?
My oldest son loved basketball when he was six, so at HIS insistence, we put him on a team--coach yelled at him, called him stupid for not knowing things like man to man and zone (RANT: Silly us, we were teaching things at home like multiplication and reading/spelling), so that he doesn't even care to watch games now. He hates the sport--he's one of the dropouts...sad, too, because he would've been a great post player.
To grow your sport (volleyball in my case), how can you avoid exploiting parents' dreams, apply those ideas?
- Are you a non-profit organization?
- How much are you charging for a club season? Compared to your local average income, is it greater than 1-2% of that total? Do you have policies in place for kids who can't afford paying $1000/$500 so that they get an opportunity as well?
- How many people do you put on a team? Kids want playing time--are they getting that in volleyball with a 12-person roster? Heck, is 10 too many? (We went to a qualifier this year and did well--40th or so out of 120ish teams, with eight kids on a roster--we lost a couple close matches because kids struggled and there was no one on the bench, so we lost [kids don't have that as a priority], but we worked through it to win our last five in a row [kids DO want to play and have the ability to fix their mistakes]).
- Do you mentor your players? Or do you operate on the clock, so that once they are out of your gym, you don't care? Or do you only give help to keep them in your program and continue the flow of cash?
- Where's the fun?
My son's coach made it fun. He's looking forward to getting started working on getting better (on his own, no prodding!) when school is out in a week.
So as you prepare for summer--consider those things. I think if you make it fun, treat your young people with respect, you'll see awesome improvement--not just in competition, but in their growth as individuals...which is what all educators should strive for.
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